Reply 20 of 81, by HunterZ
- Rank
- l33t++
DOS joysticks used DB15 connectors, which carried 4 analog axes and 4 buttons (originally intended for use with two 2-axis, 2-button analog joysticks). The most fancy of DOS joysticks, which used special encodings to add more buttons, top hats, etc. required specific game support rather than using drivers.
DOS versions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter have native support for some of those fancy DOS joysticks with top hats and such. It can also make basic use of up to all 4 standard buttons. I'm not sure what (if anything) X-Wing/Tie Fighter do with the second standard joystick X/Y axis - maybe throttle control?
If you're using a retro machine, you'll probably have a DB15 joystick port on your sound card (which often also doubles as a MIDI port for external synths), so you can plug a joystick in and use it immediately with DOS games.
If you're using DOSBox on a modern PC with no joystick port, you'll probably be stuck with having to use USB joysticks/gamepads with varying results.
Edit: I believe with X-Wing/Tie Fighter the breakdown of joystick features is as follows:
- 2 buttons allows roll and fire
- 4 buttons adds targeting/weapon controls maybe?
- top hat adds ability to switch views (otherwise controlled by the numeric keypad)
Back in the day I used to play with a basic 2-button flightstick whose stick had broken. All that was left was a 1-2 inch stub, and I jerry-rigged some buttons on a wire-wrap board that jutted off the side of the joystick's base. The buttons sucked but I preferred the stick stub to the full stick because it had higher resistance (cheap DOS flightsticks tend to have terribly low resistance!).